Day 65 of Breath of the Wild (9/23/17)
After this post i will be mostly caught up to what I am doing in the game currently. I still haven’t sat down and really gone it for the last three weeks or so, and I have to find time to do that (might be some very late nights coming up) and then my BOTW posting should be more regular. I’ve actually been learning to use Unity for the last few week, and made a few games of my own. I have another post all about this, but you can check out the game I made here. The second DLC is out in a few months so I would like to complete the game before then and be writing probably two shorter post a week.
Anyways…
Before leaving Gerudo town I was able to stock up on all four types of arrows so heading back to the Akkala region I was flush with arrows and not afraid to use them. I din’t (and haven’t) really explored the area around Gerudo too extensively (yet) but fast traveled to the Akala ancient tech lab to pick up some more ancient arrows and shields. I am keen to find some Gorons and find where they hang out because I assume they will lead me to the final divine beast. I did fast travel this once cit out some travel time (but I am trying to avoid it). I didn’t really know where else to look so I did a full lap of Death Mountain. Thing is you can’t get to close before you literally just burst into flames. So after doing a lap I picked where I think their village might be (there’s a little indent in the map too death mountain that isn’t red colored) and brute forced it with meals to recover hearts lost when you burst into flames. I did find Goron City, but I couldn’t hang out there as I obviously missed an opportunity to find protective armor for this part of the map. I probably missed a character that would activate a quest, because this game is not so crude as to require you too stock up on meals to survive in an area.
Realizing that getting to Goron City will be a bit of a chore, I decides to head northwest from death mountain. A while ago I placed four markers in the western area of the map and haven’t gone back to check them out. They were places that I wanted to return to and spend more time with or where I saw strange lights emanating from. One of those markers was for a lynel I ran into north of death mountain (mentioned it two entries ago) that was guarding some sort of large structure. I headed to that point on the map first, but heading east to west I ran into the structure before the lynel, and stumbled across the second (of three) labyrinths. I don’t think I mentioned my first experience in a labyrinth which was on the little square island in the very northeast corner of the map. These labyrinths are mazes with a shrine located in the center, and the paths to them that are hidden. But mostly hidden due to the fact that every surface is a flat gray color which makes it difficult to see any relief along the walls which might indicate where you need to go. The labyrinths are imposing (difficult to climb to top of if it’s not raining) and frustrating in the way that a maze would be because you can’t always see the top down view to tell where you’ve been. I spent probably a half hour running around trying to figure out where to go before finding my way to the middle.
After the labyrinth, next came the lyne out the front. At this point I think I’ve deafened three or four lynels so I feel ready to do this, or at least I know what to expect. The thing about fighting lynels (at my skill level) is the length of the fight. They have upwards of 2000 hp and the fights last five to ten minutes. I struggle to stay completely focused for such a long confrontation and one bad dodge or unblocked blow and it’s curtains. This lynel proved particularly difficult and it took me at least ten goes before I beat it by resorting to shooting as many arrows as possible. I got some good weapons off it and continued moving west across the top of the map. This game has invoked a lot of feelings in me (the highs of the Yiga clan confrontation to the frustration of a labyrinth) but the game can create a feeling just through changing the landscape. The more central areas of the map are well populated, and filled with things to pay attention to, but when you reach the map edges the game slows down and maybe (just a hypothesis) these are place where the scope of what they have created really settles on the player. To the north and west you will find yourself running (slowly) through huge plains of snow which are only interrupted by cliff faces rising from the ground. South of the snow drifts is the desert which stretches hazily on into the undulating distance. In the northeast corner the sea lies at the bottom of huge cliff faces which you must pick your way along the top of. I can recall the music that plays as you run through the grassland or as you enter the town, but I am not sure if there is any music associated with the edges of the map (other than the musical cue for an enemy). These areas are the only moments where maybe resource management becomes critical as there are not things in the environment to hep you survive. There are few resources, no places to cook food, and strong enemies (lots of lynels). You have to be prepared for spending time in these parts of Hyrule, but this time can be rewarding. While out at the western edge I’ve seen one of the glowing floating dragons almost every night (I think its the green one), come across a huge sunburst on the face of a cliff, found a set of huge sealed metal doors, and encountered huge stone statues. I don’t know if have all the right words to describe how the feeling of the game changes in these parts. It’s not the action, quests or quirky story that entertains you, but something about relative lack of sound and slow change of the land scape combine to remind you that you/link are alone out there and Link is alone in this quest to save Zelda.
I had three other markers placed. One was a set of ruins near Rito Village, another was some odd lights out west of the Rito Village and the fourth (which I didn’t end up going to) was set of giant metal doors on the side of some snowy cliff. The ruins ended up being part of a shrine quest involving some Rito children, and the lights turned out to be where I think the glowing floating dragon comes from. I am not really sure what they are. They seem to come from nowhere, fly around, and then fly up into the sky and disappear. They are beautiful though nd this really lovely little melody starts up when they fly near you. Its just another “What is that?” moment from this game. I have to see what/if these dragons have greater purpose, but if they are just there to create a wonderful moment that is okay to.
The next part of my route will be to drop down into the Gerudo desert and see what there is see around there (there must be some shrines out in the desert). From the desert I plan to head east and hug the bottom of the map pretty closely. I don’t think I have checked out southern border, so I want to see what’s what. Ultimately it’s back to Goron City and the fourth divine beast before it becomes all about shrine hunting.
Comicsly 